


Home From Paradise

by rahelawriter



Series: The Starcaller and the Lionheart [12]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Aftermath, Discussion of Eloping, Eden's Promise (Final Fantasy XIV) Spoilers, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Flowers, Fluff, Fruit, Hurt/Comfort, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Not Beta Read, Original Character(s), Partial Nudity, Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:20:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29411832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rahelawriter/pseuds/rahelawriter
Summary: Rahela returns home to Thancred, fresh from the final expedition to the Empty.
Relationships: Warrior of Light/Thancred Waters
Series: The Starcaller and the Lionheart [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605439
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Home From Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> Set post-5.4 Eden, but pre-5.4 MSQ!

_ "Hrrah!" _

Keen Edge. Brutal Shell. Solid Barrel. Thancred grunted with every swing and thrust of his gunblade, hitting the striking dummy with blow after blow; his body was adjusting rather well to wielding Lionheart on the Source. This particular afternoon, he'd deigned to do his daily training without donning his gunbreaker armor, instead going shirtless to avoid having to wash the sweat from it later. And he'd been so focused on that training that he nearly missed a familiar voice just outside the door of his and Rahela's now-shared room.

"Thancred?"

—Oh, Rahela was back already; smiling to himself, Thancred at once lowered his gunblade, and responded: "Welcome back, Rah! Did you and the girls enjoy your expedition?”

She'd left only a day ago to check up on both their daughter, Gaia, and the status of the Empty; all things considered, he'd expected her to be gone longer. But, one never knew for sure with the time dilation, and he was nevertheless glad to see her back. Taking a towel off its hanger, he wiped off his face before draping the cloth around his neck to catch all the accumulated sweat.

That was when Rahela opened the door; in that split second, Thancred assumed that she might appreciate the sight of him--gunblade in hand, sweaty and shirtless with a towel over his shoulders, his hair all mussed…

… But instead, she jolted and froze the minute she laid eyes on him, like she’d seen a ghost.

Immediately sensing something was amiss, Thancred frowned, and asked, “Everything alright, dove…?”

Rahela blinked a few times before the brief panic in her eyes disappeared, and the tension in her shoulders loosened. She then made a show of taking off her spectacles and wiping the lenses clean with her sleeve; putting them back on, she smiled, and said, “Sorry, Thancred, everything’s fine, just had a smudge on my glasses.”

That did nothing to assuage Thancred’s suspicions, but he let it slide. “If you say so…”

“Okay, what were you asking before?”

“If you, Ryne, and Gaia enjoyed yourselves on the expedition.”

“Right! Well…” She trailed off, the smile on her face fading again. “It was definitely… eventful. Everything turned out okay in the end, but there wasn’t a lot for us to really enjoy.”

Thancred had worried that trouble would arise in Eden after their departure, but having it confirmed… He sighed.

“Tell me everything.”

Moments later, the two were sitting together atop their shared bed. Rahela sighed, and leaned her chin upon her hand, staring off into space. Thancred waited for her to begin, listening closely…

“Gods, where do I start…” She heaved a sigh, and paused to gather her thoughts. “Well, it turned out that Gaia’s ‘faerie’ really was Eden after all. And ‘Eden’ was created when the Ascian Mitron was corrupted by the force of Ardbert’s blade of light.”

At once, Thancred’s eyes widened, and he repeated in disbelief, “ _ Mitron?!” _

Grimly, Rahela nodded. “And he was the one who erased Gaia’s memories of living in Eulmore. And… He started erasing more of her memories; he forced her to forget all about you and Urianger… And he almost destroyed all her memories of Ryne, too. I stopped him before he could succeed, but it was still way too close…”

“But, what did Mitron want with her? Why would he go that far?”

“Because Gaia is a shard of Loghrif.”

“… Oh.”

“Mitron tried to ‘ascend’ Gaia by force and merge with her. And then he…”

Rahela trailed off, and bowed her head.

Trying to fight the alarm growing in the back of his mind, Thancred asked, “What did he do, Rah?”

“Mitron…” She furrowed her brow, and sighed through her nose. “... He tried to kill Ryne and I in the same way that so many of the Ancients were killed in the Final Days. By creating a monster out of our deepest fears, and making it attack us.”

Slowly, it started to dawn on Thancred why Rahela had frozen up at the sight of him. He didn’t want to ask, but he had to. “... Do I want to know what form that monster took?”

Folding her ears down and hanging her head, she took a moment to gather her thoughts, and then, a deep breath before explaining:

“Well… Ryne’s worst fear was that you would become like Ran’jit—succumbing to the Light, and forsaking everything else you held dear in the name of protecting her; if you weren’t killed and turned into a sin eater first.”

_ Ryne… _

“And my own worst fear was…” Rahela couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. “Being faced with another fight like the Praetorium; even worse than losing you, but being forced to kill you… So, Mitron created a monster that pretty handily combined all of that—it looked like a fusion of you, Ran’jit, and a Lightwarden.”

_ Oh, gods… _ “Rah…” 

Just as Thancred reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder, Rahela put on a strained smile. “But, it’s fine; Ryne and I both knew it wasn’t real; just an Ascian creation meant to make us give into panic. She wasn’t fooled, and neither was I. Saving Gaia and freeing her from Mitron was more important. So, I fought through the fear and killed the monster.”

“Rahela—”

“Really, it’s fine,” she said, trying to reassure him. “We didn’t have time to dwell on it anyway. Not when Mitron was trying to destroy everything we fought for. So we fought him, and we won! We freed Gaia and restored her memories of Ryne! And even better—!”

_ “Hold on _ a moment, Rah.” Thancred cut her off, insistently but not harshly. "Even if the creature itself wasn't real, I can tell it upset you; don't try to pretend it didn't."

“I—!” Rahela tried to retort, but had no words to do so. Sighing through her nose, she instead explained, “I’m not trying to pretend I wasn’t upset; I was. It’s just, a lot more good happened than bad, and I’d rather not dwell on the bad.”

Though he understood her logic on a certain level, Thancred couldn’t quite bring himself to agree with it. “You’re certain?”

And in the midst of him asking that, Rahela had reached into her inventory—her adventuring pack that never seemed to get heavier or bulkier no matter what she put into it—and fumbled around for a moment; she said, “I actually wanted to lead with showing you this, but then I forgot.”

Though the sudden change of subject did not go unnoticed, Thancred asked, “What did you want to show me?”

_ “Ta-dah!” _

Rahela pulled out what she was looking for: in one hand a basket nearly overflowing with a wide variety of fruits—grapes, apples, rolanberries, peaches, oranges, pears, and even a pineapple. And in her other hand, a basket holding a bouquet of equally varied flowers—Bluebells, pure white starflowers, lavender stalks, golden poppies, even a few he didn’t know the names of.

“Fruits and flowers…?” It only took a single second of pondering where they came from and how they were relevant to the topic at hand for him to realize. But once he did, his jaw dropped and his eyes went wide with sheer astonishment.  _ “No… _ You don’t mean…”

_ “Yes! _ These are all from the Empty!” Rahela  _ grinned, _ practically bouncing on the bed in excitement. “Once Eden was finally destroyed, all of its aether went back into the land and now it’s full of plants! Flowers and trees and grass and everything! It’s so beautiful now!”

He could hardly believe it—that infinite expanse of dead land, restored to life in the blink of an eye. But the proof of it was right in front of his eyes. 

“Ryne’s dream… It came true, then.” Taking a golden poppy between his thumb and forefinger, Thancred felt a bittersweet little pang in his heart. It was one thing to save the First from an imminent Rejoining, but quite another to see it reborn; to guarantee it a livable, promising future… A slow, wistful sigh escaped him. “Gods, what I wouldn’t give to see it in person…”

“It was Ryne’s idea that I bring stuff back with me to show you; and she thought that the fruits would make for some delicious desserts.”

Resisting the urge to comment about his wife and daughter’s shared sweet tooth, Thancred said, “One thing at a time, dove. What are Ryne and Gaia up to now?”

“I saw them back to their apartments in the Crystarium,” Rahela said, setting down the . flowers and fruit. “They're going to take a little while to rest and recover before they get back to work on planning the festival.”

“That’s good,” he said. Content to know that Ryne was doing fine without him, he returned his concerns to the woman in front of him. “And as for you—you ought to follow their lead and take some time for yourself. After all you’ve been put through lately, you deserve all that and more.”

“Really, Thancred, don’t worry about me,” she said, trying as best as she could to deflect. “I was planning on taking tonight to rest, then doing some dungeon-diving tomorrow; Rowena’s on the hunt for a new kind of tomestone—”

“That can wait,” he insisted, taking her hand and squeezing it. “I consider it one of my husbandly duties to make sure you get proper rest after certain stressful events, and make sure you have ample time to process it.”

“I…” Unable to argue with that, Rahela folded her ears down and frowned. “Mmph… I would fight Mitron and any monsters he created a thousand times, if it was for Ryne and Gaia’s sake.”

Thancred sighed, and his tone softened. “Listen, dove. You saved their lives, and all of the First. And of course that’s a good thing; but they wouldn’t want you to ignore the trauma you suffered in the process. And neither do I. So don’t pretend it didn’t hurt to be forced to act out your worst nightmare.”

Gently, he cupped her striped cheek in his hand, thumb stroking her face. A soft little trill escaped her throat, and she closed her eyes, leaning into his touch. A sigh, and…

“... Of course it hurt,” she finally admitted. “That creature talked with your voice, fought with your gunblade… It really was as though you had become a Lightwarden. The whole time I fought, I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t—not during the fight, or after…”

Repeating advice that she had once given to him, Thancred said, “It’s alright, Rah; you can let it out if you need to.”

For a long moment, she didn’t respond… until a small little sigh of frustration escaped her. Thancred noticed her lips drawing into a thin line, and her eyes screwing themselves shut, as if to fight the tears she was holding back.

“Rrgh…” Her ears flicked, and she wiped away the first droplets of liquid that escaped her. “I  _ knew  _ in my head that it was all fake. It shouldn’t have upset me as much as it did. I really did know that it was just an Ascian trying to make us panic. And admitting that it nearly worked feels like letting Mitron win, but… Dammit…”

Without an onze of hesitation, Thancred pulled his wife into his arms for a long, strong hug. And gently scratching her nape, he soothed, “It’s alright, dove. I’m here, I’m safe…”

Against his bare chest, he felt the tension in Rahela’s shoulders lessen and disappear, and finally she hugged him back. 

His voice barely above a whisper, Thancred asked, “Would you like to stay like this for awhile…?”

“Please,” she said, taking in a deep breath…

… And then, she sniffed a few times, and pulled out of the hug with a grimace on her face. “Actually, I can wait until you’ve cleaned up—you smell all sweaty.”

—Oh. Thancred had nearly forgotten he’d been training beforehand. But he took her comment in stride, smirked, and returned with his own quip; “And here I thought you  _ enjoyed _ my natural musk!”

At that, her cheeks flushed pink. “I mean,  _ sometimes, _ when I’m more in the mood, but not  _ now! _ Hurry up and shower, stinky.”

“I’ll do you one better; if you’ll suffer my smell a short while longer…” 

Looping one arm underneath the back of her knees, and the other arm around her shoulders, Thancred scooped both Rahela and the basket of fruit off the bed and into his arms, a surprised little mewl escaping her as he did so.

“How about I draw a hot bath for the both of us, and we cuddle in there,” he proposed. “While I feed you those grapes, whisper sweet adorations in your ear, and let you run your fingers through my hair to your heart’s content. How does that sound?”

Finally, a smile crossed his wife’s face. “You had me at  _ ‘hot bath,’ _ lovey.”

With a nod, Thancred carried her out of their room and in the general direction of the Rising Stones’ washroom. But then, he remembered something.

“Ah, I nearly forgot. Later tonight—with your permission, of course—I mean to ask Tataru if there’s any Adventurer’s Guild officials here in Revenant’s Toll who are certified to marry people.”

“—Eh?” Rahela’s ears perked up, her eyes widening in surprise.

”And I know full well that hers is a busy schedule, but I suspect that she would leap at the chance to put together an elopement dress for you.”

She blinked. “Elopement…?”

“We’re more or less fully recovered from our long slumber, now,” Thancred explained, a small and barely noticeable pang of regret in his voice. “In a few days, Krile’s going to give us one last physical before she deems us fit to return to our duties.”

“Ah…”

He detected a crestfallenness in her voice—he knew she wanted in her heart for these comparatively peaceful days to last… He couldn’t deny he wanted the same thing. But circumstances always dictated otherwise. Damn that Zenos… “Unfortunately, a few days isn’t nearly enough time for the two of us to go to the Sanctum of the Twelve, go on a lengthy pilgrimage across the realm, and schedule another ceremony. That’s when I had the idea for us to elope; if you’re alright with it, we can be married again by tomorrow night—”

“—Yes!” Rahela exclaimed before Thancred had even finished talking. “We can talk to Tataru about it together. I don’t mind it being an elopement, but she might be disappointed…”

_ Always thinking of others… _ Thancred huffed out a laugh. “It’s fine; maybe in some far-off and distant future, once the world is well and truly done throwing crises at us, we can let her plan the wedding to end all weddings.”

Maybe, when that day came, the Source would well and truly be as peaceful, as paradisal, as the lush, green utopia that once called itself the Empty…

**Author's Note:**

> so as it turned out, 5.4 didn't really allow for the big wedding fic sequel i'd wanted to write ;w;
> 
> maybe someday they'll let the scions (wol and thancred especially) actually FUCKING REST and have time for FUN STUFF…


End file.
